In 1975 I was looking for a career that would fascinate me for the rest of my life. In a way, weaving chose me!

Monday, May 29, 2017

Time Flies

It has been 2 years, 4 months and one week (plus a couple of days, but who's counting?) since my surgery.

I was warned it would be a one year recovery, possibly two, some said three. Well, frankly it has only been the past little while that I have felt anywhere close to functional. But I'm not expecting to regain everything I lost. After all, I am 2 years, 4 months and a week (or so) older. Other health issues have reared their unlovely heads during that time and my activity horizon has definitely shrunk.

That doesn't mean I'm not trying to push that horizon further back - joining the Y was one thing I figured would help. Increase my strength and overall fitness, and that would have to help, surely?

Even so, I incorporated weaving into my recovery routine, knowing that mentally it would help enormously if I could get to the loom and gauge my recovery by how much more stamina I had by being active. I did the same after breaking my ankle, and also during chemo - although that was a downhill slide until it was done.

I would feel frustrated at how little I could do and people would tell me that I could do more on a 'bad' day then they could on a 'good' one.

But weaving is my profession. I'm very good at it. I'm very efficient at it. So trying to compare me to most other weavers is chalk and cheese.

It took me a very long time to feel comfortable with the mantle of 'master weaver'. But a master doesn't just make things, they also know how to do it efficiently, ergonomically. They understand their materials, processes, equipment. They know when something is working, when it isn't, how to fix it and when to give up and begin again. They understand the nuances of the craft in a way that others who have not taken the time to dig into it all simply cannot

So when people say they don't want to be efficient, I get that. But I am all too aware at how close I came, not once but several times, to running out of time. Forever. And I'm not done yet. So I do not want to work artificially slowly using tools that aren't engineered well, processes that are not appropriate to my materials, materials that are not appropriate to my intended end result.

Mastering the craft means that efficiency will increase as skills increase, knowledge increases. So yes. I want to work as efficiently as I can. Because time flies...